There must be a left back in world football that would come to Ewood in January and play for £10k a week. What do the scouts do all week??

League One team right there. Zero progress from 12 months ago.

Come up with a league one team and finish safe in the championship is a reasonable success. However the £6m on Brereton changes it unfortunately.

I’m really disappointed we didn’t go for centre back Souttar from Stoke in January. He went on loan to Fleetwood and has been brilliant by all accounts. Tony moaned about players not being available, but that’s not true, we just don’t seem to be able to scout players unless they’ve played well against a Mowbray team at some point in the past.

Back 3 now according to Sharpe. Smallwood already booked, going to be a long afternoon.

Shocking but true. The biggest red flag was Whitingham who was meant to be the first XI signing last season. Was obvious from day 1 that he wasn't up to it. We can't afford to make a mistake like that again, because it will be expensive in this league.

Damage limitation line up.

My guess at The Full Mowbray team is: Raya Rodwell Nyambe Mulgrew Bennett Smallwood Travis Evans Bell Dack Graham

Having no wingers does have a negative impact on the players that get stuck out there. Kasey Palmer obviously has something about him, he’s flying at Bristol, but I think his potential was restricted by constantly being asked to do the job of a winger. likewise Rothwell, Brereton, Armstrong, Samual (when fit). If we are going to carry on playing this formation we need to sign players who can play it.

Good to hear that he is acknowledging the same weaknesses that we can see: - Lack of a tough centre back - Soft mentally and when under pressure - too loyal to the league one team - BB has been poor The fact is that that most of us could see this for a while... including the tactics pre-Oldham last season. I think he’s changed his approach if we are going after 24-28 year olds in summer. I wouldn’t sell Dack if at all possible.If we were a top 6 side scoring goals, Dack would be invaluable. You can’t replace him + buy 4 others with £15m.

Last season you could see the potential with him, but he was nowhere near ready to play 1st team football, even in league one. He's obviously come on massively since then. Hopefully this will happen with Brereton, although i've not seen the potential yet.

I don't think the spec was for an English youth international, it is just that we don't scout foreign based players, so the player had to be someone young playing in England that was within our wage structure. Hence why we overpaid.

If the club had come up from League One, spent next to nothing, then being clear of the relegation zone (so far) this season would be a success for Mowbray. The big problem is that he had spent nearly £10 million in summer and we don't look any better for it. Spending the vast majority of our budget on Brereton is turning out to be complete madness. Wouldn't surprise me if Venkys pointed this out in Switzerland, which prompted the rant about European scouts. More changes needed behind the scenes before we can think about kicking on, with or without Mowbray. A decent left back would also help.

Time to throw in some of the u23s. Butterworth and Maglure should be given a shot. When is Chapman going to be fit? Would be nice to have a winger on the wing for once this season.

It's a reality check that we are still miles off being a normal club and shows the extent that Venkys have destroyed the infrastructure of the club. I can't believe we have gone and spent over £10 million under Waggot and Mowbray without looking at any foreign players. No wonder we haven't kicked on this season. English players are largely overpriced. Funny that Mowbray mentioned Maupay, I mentioned him on here the other day. Sounds like we're not even looking for bargains like him. We signed a lad from the Northern Ireland league, why have someone scouting there and not in Europe? Surely Venkys don't need to approve the appointment of a scout on wages that are far lower than the players. Why after 2 years is this just being looked at (not even fixed yet)??

Anyone think that we shouldn't have let Downing go out on loan? I'd have him starting if he was here still. He's always been a calming influence at the back.

I'm sure Butterworth is bemused as to why he's not being given the chances that BB is being given in the first team. I saw a replay of the goal he scored against Accy Stanley, he took the ball from his own half, ran the length of the pitch and fired it into the corner. If Brereton had done that for the U23s everyone would be saying to get him in the first team.

I said before January that a decent left back would have the biggest effect on this team. Still stand by that. Reading away is always a bogey fixture. Can’t see that changing.

Saturday begs the question, why have Smallwood on the bench if he's not going to come on in games like that? Winning the game, Evans and Travis getting completely overrun. Why not bring on Smallwood to sit in front of the defence? Instead, Conway comes on and bizzarely spends his first 15 minutes playing in the Dack role that he's not played before.

Mawpay cost Brentford £1.5m

I'm afraid Mowbray's game management has been done over today. At 2-0 up we need a plan to see the game out. Instead we played into their hands. It is a really difficult ground to play at, our usual game of passing it around the back didn't work. Ewood is one of the biggest pitches outside the PL, Brentford is one of the smallest and it showed. Home advanced counted for a lot. Bennett was really exposed. I don't know why Reed wasn't moved over.

I'm expecting much the same if he even wins a header.

I never understood why we ended up selling Cole so cheaply to Fulham. Still had years left in him.

Maybe an upside of not spending money now is that it will be available in summer to put towards Reed on a permanent (if he wants to come).

I'm happy we got a proper winger in Chapman. I'm less happy we failed to sign a striker or left back. No idea what the scouting team do all year.